From the Stacks by Nanette Morges

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, May 26, 2008

I get very disappointed when an author lets me down, especially when it's someone I have such high hopes for.

Years ago, I read Scott Smith's "A Simple Plan." It was an intriguing, thought-provoking read that left me contemplating the fates of the characters long after I finished the book. I highly recommend it.

Smith went on to pen the screenplay for the movie, which garnered him an Oscar nomination. There is no denying he is a talented writer, which is why I am so disappointed in his sophomore novel.

Last weekend, I finally got around to reading -- or rather listening to -- his latest book, "The Ruins."

I was on my way to Pennsylvania, so I stopped by the library and checked out the audio book. If I weren't trapped in my car, stuck in traffic for hours on end, I doubt I would have finished it.

I guess what bothered me most about this book was that it just wasn't as unpredictable and suspenseful as "A Simple Plan." I would probably be more forgiving of this fact if I didn't know that Smith was capable of writing a novel that blind-sided me with some of the plot twists. I feel like the nagging aunt saying, "Come on, you can do better than that."

Smith is hardly the only author who has left me asking "what happened?" Stephen King is another writer who both awes and disappoints me in turn, as is J.K. Rowling and Laurell K. Hamilton.

These are hardly authors who write bad books. It's quite the opposite actually. I think they set the bar so high early on that it seems sometimes they have trouble meeting the standards I have come to expect from them.

It's unfair, but true.

When I pick up a Stephen King book, I expect to be scared, amused and entertained. And when that doesn't happen, I feel dissatisfied.

That is part of the reason John Berendt's "The City of Falling Angels" has been sitting unopened on my shelf for years. I love "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and I am afraid that the magic might not be rekindled.

Yet my disappointment will hardly keep me from continuing to read my favorite authors' next books. Instead, it makes me more anxious to see what their next tale is and if it will have me reading well into the night, unable to stop turning the page.

Lucky for me, they usually deliver.

Nanette Morges is the features editor at The Hour. She can be reached at nmorges@thehour.com.